Embracing new Technology – Everything Dinosaur Newsletter

Novel Technology used to Produce Everything Dinosaur Newsletter

The science of palaeontology is being advanced all the time, what with new research into existing fossil specimens and the unearthing of new fossils, many of which represent unknown species. Advances in technology and improvements in methods have enabled scientists to do some amazing things, from examining the braincase of a Tyrannosaur using CAT scans to examining invertebrate fossils in fluorescence chambers to identify fine detail.

Certainly, things have moved on since the days of the simple desk mounted microscope. Likewise advances in software technology has enabled the Internet to become a much more accessible place. Most homes now have broadband as standard and this has enriched the lives of many surfers. We at Everything Dinosaur have been investigating the power and potential of a new software programme that enables us to produce electronic versions of brochures and catalogues. Team members have just put together our first ever piece of “e-literature” – an eight page newsletter that informs readers about our little company, explains about what we do and shows some of our products.

The New Everything Dinosaur Newsletter

Picture Credit: Everything Dinosaur

Visitors to our website can click on the “Newsletter” button and be transported to a special site that hosts our eight page newsletter. Once there, visitors can use the “zoom” options to focus in on an article, use the mouse to turn pages, click links and all sorts of interactive stuff. It is like publishing a brochure without having to use paper or to go to the trouble of printing, which makes this system good for the environment.

The picture above shows some of the pages from the new Everything Dinosaur newsletter. On view is an article on the plans for commemorating the birth of Charles Darwin – the “Darwin 200” in 2009, plus features on cake making and dinosaurs for girls. In the centre of the screen a yellow box has been highlighted. This is one of the many embedded links in the document which when clicked will take readers to related information – really cool. The controls for navigating around the newsletter are easy to master and this does represent a great way to keep our many thousands of customers and visitors to our various websites informed about our activities and plans.

This type of technology is helping to provide more information for website visitors and provides an enriched website visit – perhaps we can add more newsletters and maybe even take readers on a virtual tour of one of our fossil hunting expeditions.